Postscript - Media & Marketing: Spar Kitchen Hero

DONAL Skehan's star is firmly on the rise. Spar has just agreed to partner with the twenty-something, right, for a fifth year, inking a €275,000 sponsorship deal with RTE's 'Kitchen Hero' programme, as well as his live tour later this year.

DONAL Skehan's star is firmly on the rise. Spar has just agreed to partner with the twenty-something, right, for a fifth year, inking a €275,000 sponsorship deal with RTE's 'Kitchen Hero' programme, as well as his live tour later this year.

Returning to the air on June 24, the theme of the upcoming season is 'Rediscovering the Irish Kitchen' with lots of emphasis on revitalising some of the country's classic dishes. The last series attracted more than 240,000 viewers per episode. The series has been created by TV food and travel specialists Inproduction.

Spar's supporting marketing activity will include the production of stings, recipe cards, postcards and in-store merchandise. The integrated marketing campaign will also feature a strong social media element.

WORLD CUP BOOST

THE WORLD Cup will boost global spending on advertising by a massive $1.5bn (€1.1bn) this year, new research has found, with television expected to benefit the most.

The figures come from ZenithOptimedia's latest Advertising Expenditure Forecasts. Although TV will enjoy much of this benefit, the findings also suggested advertisers will increase the portion of their budget allocated to internet advertising this time around.

The positive impact for advertisers will be most noticeable in Latin America, due to match timing. This region will enjoy a boost of as much as $500m. North America and Europe should be up by $300m a piece.

The global advertising industry's recovery is well under way, the research found. The market is expected to grow by 5.4pc in 2014, up from 3.9pc in 2013. This will rise to 5.7pc in 2015 and 6.1pc in 2016, it predicted.

TIME WARNER DEAL

TIME Warner is closing in on a deal with Vice, planning to buy a large stake in the alternative media company that would value it at between $2bn and $3bn.

Vice was founded as an off-beat music magazine in Montreal, Canada, but has found success via unconventional YouTube shows and its news website. Its original publication now only accounts for around 5pc of its revenues.

Its online video reports and specialist "channels" for music, technology and martial arts now account for about 80pc of its revenues. It has produced shows for Time Warner's television operation, HBO.

The company has 35 offices around the world, but has yet to set up a base in Ireland. But it does have an interesting Irish link through Storyful, the video licensing and breaking news organisation founded by former RTE anchor Mark Little.

Storyful inked a deal to provide Vice with video content last year.

GAA FANS 'SHOUT'

EIRCOM has launched a new gauge of public interest in GAA players as part of their sponsorship of the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship.

The campaign, called 'Your Shout Counts', asks GAA fans to comment on their favourite players and match incidents over the course of the season through www.eircom.ie/gaa.

Each week Eircom's GAA ambassadors (Jason Sherlock, Donie Shine and Colm Cooper) will choose their favourite 'Shouts' and these will be profiled online and in the 'Irish Daily Star' the following week.

All fans who contribute a 'Shout' will automatically be entered into a weekly draw for match tickets, mobile phones and Eircom GAA merchandise.

It is supported by a TV advertisement which will air during all live matches, with additional stings on RTE and Sky.

The campaign was assisted by DDFH+B, with RMG and Titan building the online and social activation and media buying by Vizeum.